Key Voices

A Shiny New ACORN Conspiracy

As the Department of Health and Human Services prepares to implement the Affordable Care Act, they are hiring people to help uninsured Americans find health insurance in the state exchanges that law sets up. Would you believe this has something to do with ACORN and voter fraud? Let’s peek into the dark, festering mind of the wingnut to find out just how, starting with Breitbart.com, which declares “HHS RESURRECTS ‘ACORN’ THROUGH OBAMACARE!”

ObamaCare provides millions of dollars in grants to hire community activists and others as “navigators” to assist individuals enroll in health insurance provided by state or federal exchanges and, according to recent reports, register people to vote. In a new rule proposed Wednesday, HHS lays out numerous guidelines for these “navigators”, including paying them up to $48/hour for their work. The rule, guidelines and voter registration effort are a potential vehicle to resurrect ACORN or an ACORN-like entity.

One organization expected to take a lead role in distributing the funds and overseeing hiring is Enroll America, a new non-profit headed by Anne Filipic, a former Obama White House official under Valerie Jarrett. Filipic was also a senior staff member at OFA director and a former Obama campaign director. The organization was founded, in part, by Families USA, a far-left advocacy organization that lobbied aggressively for ObamaCare, a source at HHS told Breitbart News. Filipic has said she expects Enroll America to spend $100 million on the enrollment effort. A large percentage of this is likely to come from federal funds.

Ron Pollack, head of Families USA, has said their effort will be run like a “political campaign.” Which has made many observers uneasy about the inclusion of voter registrations in the health care applications. LA Rep. Charles Boustany recently sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, asking why voter registration information was included.

One of the things that has to be done in implementing the ACA is that some 30 million people have to be guided through the process of getting the right policy through the health insurance exchanges. That is going to require hiring people to do that. Perhaps Boustany should look up the National Voter Registration Act, aka the Motor Voter Law. That law requires that people who apply for government programs be given the opportunity to register to vote during that process. Only in the wingnut mind could this be turned into a dark (pun intended) conspiracy.

Why are they concerned about people being registered to vote? Because it’s the wrong people being registered to vote. They don’t want poor people, people who finally can get health insurance to realize after the first time a family member gets sick that, “Hey, this is pretty cool. Why in the world would anyone vote against this?” And then vote against the Republicans.

madarab

Ed, where do I get one of these jobs that pays $48/hour?

http://strangesally.wordpress.com/ SallyStrange

Geez. Wait til they find out that hiring or subcontracting community organizations to spread the word about government programs is actually a common practice, whether it’s health care, energy efficiency, jobs training, home repair, or whatever.

Moon Jaguar

I foolishly dove into the cesspool that is the Breitbart comments section. OMFG. Folks are crazier than shithouse rats over there!

rabbitscribe

# 4 Moon Jaguar: I thought about it, but I just paid a hobo $2.00 to kick me square in the balls instead. It’s pretty much the same except it saves on bandwidth and the hobo gets a beer.

otrame

Obama seems to bring out the shithouseness. They just can’t stand the fact that there is a black man in the White House who doesn’t clean the toilets.

Johnny Vector

Regarding “Paying them up to $48/hour for their work”, and Rep. Boustany’s claim that they “The proposed rule establishes a pay scale for Navigators between $20 and $48 an hour.” (oops, that’s rep. Marchant (R-TX); apparently lots of folks are jumping on this out-of-tune band wagon):

For purposes of the information collection requirements, Navigator personnel and non-Navigator assistance personnel are estimated to have a professional wage of $20 per hour. [4] Navigator and non-Navigator assistance project leads are estimated to have a professional wage of $29 per hour. [5] Navigator senior executives are estimated to have a professional wage of $48 per hour. [6] The average professional wage for Navigator personnel, projectsleads, senior executives, and non-Navigator assistance personnel and project leads is estimated to be $29.20 per hour.

The footnotes say they are assuming GS-9, GS-12, and GS-15 equivalent salaries for the assistants, leads, and executives. This is an assumed cost estimate, not a pay scale. Apparently some congresscritters have reading comprehension issues.

http://en.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/User:Modusoperandi Modusoperandi

“Perhaps Boustany should look up the National Voter Registration Act, aka the Motor Voter Law.”

Duh. Everybody knows that Clinton was in on it.

http://aceofsevens.wordpress.com Ace of Sevens

So basically, these employees will be paid living wages, but nothing expecptional. (I’m assuming the federal government has to pay payroll tax on its employees for bookkeeping purposes.)

thisisaturingtest

IIRC, one of the initial slams against the ACA was that “goshdarn it, this thing is just so darn complicated! How are common citizens and our god-fearin’ job creators ever gonna understand it?”

So the federal government establishes a mechanism to help with understanding of it- and that’s a conspiracy.

Rule #1 in the “Conspiracy Theory Thought Handbook”- “Everything is proof of the conspiracy- even two mutually contradictory things.”